Depoliticizing Keystone to get true picture

It is time for the media to help depoliticize the mining of tar sands in Canada and Keystone’s proposed pipeline to the Texas coast. Somewhere along the line, this issue became a right-versus-left issue that has resulted in distortions of the truth that need to be addressed.

The big picture is really about the direction tar sands take us on our trajectory to ever-increasing levels of CO2 that are warming our planet. There has been a glut of misinformation that should be addressed, and the public needs to be informed of the truth.

First, the facts. Depending on the source, there is agreement that between 90 to 97 percent of actual climate scientists and researchers publishing in that field believe climate warming is attributable to our CO2 output and not nature. Increased CO2 in the atmosphere results in increased Earth temperatures, by absorbing and emitting infrared radiation at certain wavelengths that trap heat on the planet. Research shows we had 280 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 in preindustrial times, and now at 394 ppm it is “likely” higher now than the past 20 million years. We can differentiate CO2 origin by examining the ratio of various carbon isotopes in the atmosphere, so we know we are the problem. This is all incontrovertible and has nothing to do with politics.

So by examining Keystone in this context, the public, left and right, may want to take a renewed interest in our carbon footprint.

The oil industry claims that environmental risks are “minimal” for Keystone and it has spent a great deal of money getting that message out. However, most climate scientists believe tar sands are 22 percent more carbon intensive than normal drilling and mining for oil. Worldwide reserves of tar sands contain approximately 250 billion barrels of oil, with 177 billion barrels of it in Canada. That’s a lot of CO2.

There are basically two preferred methods of extraction from tar sands. One is strip mining and the other is in situ, which uses steam and solvents to extract the bitumen slurry. The argument from the oil industry is that 90 percent of the mining will be in situ, which is not as damaging as strip mining. However, recent data show that 350 million cubic meters of water are used per year to mine tar sands in Canada and all of it ends up in tailings ponds, known also as mine dumps. It takes 40 years to reclaim a tailings pond. Chemicals leach into the soil to the detriment of the boreal forest and its inhabitants. Moose in these mine dump areas have from 17 to 453 times acceptable limits of arsenic in their systems. Levels of carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons have increased as much as 23-fold since bitumen extraction began in Alberta. Minimal risks? What about the people who live there?

As to the oil industry’s arguments pertaining to jobs, again they skew the facts. Once the pipeline is finished, it will actually only employ between 20 and a few hundred at the most to maintain it. They fail to acknowledge the loss of jobs caused by increased levels of CO2 because of droughts, floods and more severe storms. Some estimates of the damage say it could wipe out 2 percent of the GDP of the U.S. by 2030. Nearly 73 percent of the contiguous U.S. is suffering a prolonged drought. Let them explain their jobs argument to bankrupt ranchers and farmers in the Midwest, workers dependent on a drying Mississippi River for a living or people who lost everything they own to flooding.

The media need to take a closer look at Keystone and projects like it that will take us on a trajectory to a much warmer planet and its repercussions. The media need to put in the extra research and work to depoliticize this issue and serve the public.